Laser ablation synthesis of C-doped Pt and its silicides with special structures and optical absorption

Abstract Pulsed laser ablation of bulk Pt in tetraethyl orthosilicate caused C-doped Pt and its silicides with special structures as identified by analytical electron microscopy. The former belongs to lamellar/fcc-type, whereas the latter are orthorhombic PtSi with (110) polysynthetic twinning and body-centered tetragonal Pt 16 Si 7 C 1 , i.e. a 2 2 × 2 2 × 1 supercell of the parental Pt 2 Si 1-x by Si/C ordering, with well-developed (132) face having periodic bond chains bypassing the covalent Si-C clusters at the body center. The C-doped PtSi particulate tended to coalesce with the fcc-Pt particulate following the epitaxial relationship [100] PtSi //[011] Pt ; (001) PtSi //(100) Pt across a curved interface for 3-D lattice match. The overall substances have significant UV absorption for potential optocatalytic applications and shed light on dynamic phase selection in the Pt-Si-C system.